Incumbent Insurers are from Mars and InsurTech Startups are from Venus

John Gray’s bestselling 1992 book Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus helped define relationships for a generation based on the metaphor that men and women are from distinct “planets” with their own traditions and customs. It has endured as a popular way to explain how people get along with each other.

There is an interesting correlation between this concept and the relationships incumbent insurers and InsurTech startups have with each other.

The insurance business model has been resilient, with little change over many decades. However, the digital age shift is revealing cracks and challenges, but also great opportunities. Foundational and fundamental elements of the insurance business are changing and will require major adjustments in order to survive and thrive. Shifting customer needs and expectations, the adoption of new technologies and innovations, and the increasingly rapid pace of growth and investment in InsurTech, new startups and greenfields are creating a continuous era of change and disruption.

As a result, the story of each insurance organization is now open for review, revision and rewrite. The plot you thought you knew has an alternate ending. Instead of being different, we are finding we are all more alike than we thought. The reason that so many insurers, tech companies, investors and reinsurers are looking at InsurTech and innovation is the sense of opportunity that they all seek in making the shift to Digital Insurance 2.0.

Hear from this panel of Insurance and InsurTech influencers on what can be learned about the differences between incumbent insurers that are focused on internal optimization and operating in a traditional Insurance 1.0 model, and InsurTechs who are focused on future, customer-focused thinking and building Digital Insurance 2.0 models. Initial results from new primary research with InsurTechs, including MGA and insurance startups as well as data and solution provider startups, will provide insights on whether we are living on different planets or if the planets are aligning to fix the challenges of the Insurance 1.0 model.

Tomorrow is where the money is and there will always be a tomorrow — so where in the future is the ripening market of opportunity? What insights can you take away and apply to your organization? Is your organization stuck on fixing today while a future incumbent Greenfield or InsurTech startup is preparing to capture your tomorrow?